Consumers now desire to connect a mobile terminal to another mobile terminal or various peripherals. Accordingly, there are a variety of connection methods used by diverse mobile terminal manufacturers, such as a docking system unique to each product, connection terminals, and various memory devices.
A recently adopted Universal Serial Bus On-The-Go (USB OTG) standard reflects the growing needs for data exchange between two devices. However, considering that devices to be connected are mobile devices, the USB OTG standard has the following disadvantages. First, users have to carry USB cables, which are not easy to carry around. In addition, the users themselves have to connect or disconnect two devices. Therefore, if such connections or disconnections occur frequently, a lot of time and efforts are wasted on the part of users, which are not at all desirable. Theses disadvantages stem from the fact that the USB OTG standard is based on wired communication technology.
On the other hand, wireless communication technology eliminates the need to carry cables. However, the wireless communication technology has technological problems associated with wireless technology, such as power consumption, costs, and frequency regulations. Furthermore, the wireless communication technology has the following disadvantages in interface engineering aspects.
Given the current trend that many devices are installed in a narrower space, there is a high probability that many devices will exist in a wireless network in the future. In addition, a network connection between devices is different from that of a conventional network.
Such network connections and disconnections frequently occur depending on users' actual activities. In addition, the duration of network connection is generally short. For example, in the case of Bluetooth, if a user desires to print a picture from a personal digital assistant (PDA), the user has to search for a network and then an available device in the found network. Next, the user has to select a printer and connect the selected printer to the PDA. Then, the user selects the picture to print and selects a print menu. Finally, the user disconnects the network connection. Some of these operations may be preset with a few button clicks on a menu. Hence, the number of operations performed by the user may be reduced. However, this kind of network connection and disconnection still require the concentration, time and intervention of the user. Furthermore, the user needs to be familiar with how to use the PDA.
Intuition is an important requirement for future application devices. As devices become sophisticated, people tend to have trouble learning how to use those devices.
In an example of interaction between a camera and a printer, a conventional method using Bluetooth or an USB requires a user to perform network connection before starting a printing operation and perform network disconnection after the printing operation. However, such network management activities are not directly relevant to the printing operation, which is a major interest of the user. The network connection and disconnection are mere processes required for the printing operation. However, the user has to understand and learn these processes in order to perform the printing operation.